Meta’s New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale
WIRED • • business
Key Points:
- Meta plans to lay off about 10 percent of its workforce, nearly 8,000 employees, amid low morale driven by pay cuts, mandatory role changes, and new employee activity tracking software aimed at AI training.
- Employees express widespread dissatisfaction, with many hoping to be laid off to receive severance benefits, while only top AI developers and highly paid staff seem to be thriving.
- UK Meta workers are organizing a labor union in response to perceived harsh leadership, privacy concerns, and job insecurity, reflecting a broader trend of tech worker protests at major companies.
- Despite strong profits and increased spending on AI and data centers, employees face pay reductions, internal scrutiny, and ethical concerns following court rulings against Meta for product harms.
- Meta's introduction of mandatory tracking software to monitor employee computer activity for AI training has sparked protests and privacy fears, with employees calling for its removal and criticizing leadership's dismissive response.